If you're new to gluten free cooking, then you've probably noticed the ingredient "guar gum" floating around in some of your pinned recipes. Widely available and easy to use guar gum is a staple in many gluten free households. Why? In most baked treats, gluten acts as a binding agent to keep all of the ingredients together. This means that if you're baking a gluten free treat, you'll no longer have the gluten to bind the ingredients to one another. Enter, guar gum. Guar gum is a natural ingredient that works similarly to gluten, to secure, emulsify and thicken gluten free ingredients. If you bake gluten free goods without guar gum or a similar substitute, the result will likely be quite crummy. Literally! 

We've learned that information on guar gum can be hard to find. Often, it's listed as an ingredient in a recipe without the recipe ever explaining why it's there. This lack of information has caused a lot of questions about guar gum to rise in the gluten free community. Questions like: What is guar gum? What is it used for? Is it natural and safe to eat? Our team of guar gum experts has come together to answer all of these questions and more! Read on to discover the uses and benefits of guar gum. We'll talk about the very things that make guar gum the perfect gluten free ingredient to help you create the yummy treat you've been craving. 

What Is Guar Gum

Before diving into guar gum benefits, let's first discuss what it is. Guar gum, also known as guaran, comes from the seed of the Indian tree. This gum is created by removing the husks from the guar seeds. The shells are then milled and sorted into the powder known as guar gum. Commonly used as an additive in baking, guar gum works to improve the texture and shelf life of baked goods. With eight times the thickening power of cornstarch, guar gum is an essential part of gluten free baking.

When using this powder, it's important to remember that a little goes a long way. Guar gum has extremely high water-absorbing abilities. This means that it can instantly increase thickness, even when added to cold water. However, adding too much guar gum to any recipe can result in bulky, stringy baked goods that are very high in fiber. While fiber is an essential part of a healthy digestive system, too much of it may cause an upset stomach in sensitive individuals.